On the last Friday of term there is often a feeling of celebration that we have done all that we set out to do in September and have ‘made it’ to the Christmas holidays. Children and staff in the Trust always work hard to move on with the learning but the autumn term can feel like a long one. However, when you add in the effect of COVID and the very, very late decision by the government in April last year to switch to a new way of teaching phonics in English schools then the cumulative effect is doubled. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our staff who have responded to the challenges of this term magnificently. By acting together as a group of local schools we have been able to support each other to keep learning going and we have not had to close a single class or site this term. Moreover, the progress that children are making in reading using the new ‘Little Wandle’ phonics scheme is impressive and we are already seeing results. The Trust has now invested around £60,000 this year to support reading in our schools with new resources and books and we are determined to do all that we can to ensure that our children make great progress in 2022 and beyond.
We wish all our staff and families a happy Christmas and hope that everyone enjoys a good and restful holiday. With COVID cases rising we are unsure what is going to happen in January but, as always, will keep you informed here on our website. In the meantime we are so pleased to have been able to give the children a relatively ‘normal’ Christmas this year as the stories on our news pages demonstrate. We look forward to seeing you all next year. ???
Best wishes
Jolyon Roberts and Lynne Sampson
